Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Shining Lights
by GemGremlin
Summary: Two pokemon who can harness the mysterious power known simply as Light become partners in an unusual circumstance to deal with pokemon who harness the power simply known as Shadow threaten their home. With the help of their guild and the strength of their unusual friendship they must find the other users of the Light to fight back the shadow that looms over everything they know.
1. Prologue: Bright beginnings

"Do you feel it brother, the darkness that grows ever stronger?"

"Yes, I've felt it for a very long time now."

"If we do not act soon the world we helped to create, will be lost to us."

"If we do anything, he will be upset with us. You know as well as I, that we cannot stop this madness. Perhaps this was destined to happen."

"I will not accept such a destiny brother! Perhaps there is another way."

"What are you suggesting?"

"What I am suggesting brother, is this."

A shining orb of bright light, one that shines as bright as the stars in the night skies. So much power in one orb, so much potential, the warmth radiating with its shimmering glow.

"Are you sure brother? You know what this would mean, do you not?"

"I am well aware of the consequences, I have given this much thought for many years. It is the only way."

"But that kind of power, in the hands of a mere mortal, it would surely be far to great for their body and soul to handle."

"It will not be one mere mortal brother."

Streams of light, flowing like ribbons from the orb as it shrinks. The streams entering a swirling blue energy, and leaving this realm. As the orb continues to shrink into nothing, and the ribbons of light end their flow.

"I have seen six brother, six souls that will one day shine brighter than the stars in the heavens. A new destiny will soon open to this world, I have seen it."

"He will not be happy about this. But you already knew that, I expect you to keep a close eye on these souls you speak of. This kind of power in the world, he will surely notice."

"This was the only way, I have done what is best for the world. You will see, in due time."

"Well, this is certainly a surprise. No, six surprises, so strong and yet just like that they vanish. No matter, they won't hide from me forever."

A cold presence, dark, overwhelming, and spine chilling.

"Find these six surprises for me, I want them gone before they ruin everything."


	2. Chapter 1: Thief in the night

Long drawn out breaths trying to calm the fast paced beating in his chest. Standing still against the cold stone wall of the cavern he hides in, listening for even the slightest of movement that would warn him to continue running. He waits, and waits, until concluding he's finally alone. Losing all sense of how long he had been running from his pursuer as the sun begins to set past the canopy of the woods. Finally calming his heart he sits down onto the hard surface of the cavern floor, sprawling his collected goods down in front of him from out of a small brown pouch. Ten coins, a shiny golden bracelet, and an empty circular silver locket.

"I knew eventually you would find a place of rest, thief." A startling voice coming from above, the thief looks up as a flash of green envelops his view. In only a split second he had found himself face down on the cavern floor with both his hands behind his back, "You're a slippery one i'll give you that, but I was always going to catch you in the end, Sableye."

Looking up as much as his neck would allow him he sees a Grovyle, the same one that had been chasing him through these woods all day. "It's no use struggling, it's over," being lifted off the ground he only now notices the cuffs that were placed on his wrists, most likely done the moment he was jumped. Now leaning against the cavern wall the sableye had to watch as his stolen goods were scooped up into the grovyle's own small brown pouch, one that had been pulled from a large carrying bag strapped to his back. "Damnit, it's already gotten dark," the grovyle turning his attention to the cuffed thief, "As much as I want to bring you and your stolen goods back to the guild it's too dangerous to go at night, so I guess we're stuck with each other through the night. So do me a favor and sit tight, im to tired to deal with more struggling."

The grovyle sat on the other side of the cavern leaning against it's wall constantly watching his caught bounty. Eventually pulling out a fresh apple from his bag which was now set next to him, as the grovyle gave the sableye a curious gaze. The sableye was now shifting in his spot, not struggling but looked more concerned, what the grovyle found strange was the sableye didn't seem concerned about him or the goods he had just lost.

"Sit still your driving me crazy over here," the sableye ignores his command, "Look I don't want to be here anymore then you do, but it's your fault I had to chase you all the way to the edge of the woods." The sableye stops his constant movement and now has his focus deeper into the cavern where the darkness takes over. Sableye knew he should be able to see past that darkness since his species could see exceptionally well in the dark, he knew that if he could not see past that darkness it only meant one thing about this place.

"Not much of a talker are you?" The sableye turns his gaze to his captor. "I mean I get that I captured you and all but usually thieves I take down can't stop talking." The two continue to sit in awkward silence as the sableye no longer rips his gaze from the deeper part of the cavern.

"I know you're not talking but this is a question I always like to ask. Why exactly did you steal this stuff anyways?" No response is once again given, "Come on, at least make this night go fast-" The grovyle is immediately cut off and startled to his feet as a low rumble emanates from deeper within the darkness of the cavern. The sableye follows in standing preparing himself for what's headed directly at them. "Oh no, I was so busy watching you I failed to properly check this cavern." A large three foot all around boulder rolls out of the darkness, sprouting two legs and four arms both made of the same stone material, "A hidden dungeon."

"Graveler!" The stone pokemon readies itself for combat against both its surprised adversaries. The grovyle now stands quickly thinking about how to deal with this situation. If he fights the graveler his bounty has a chance to run, if he keeps the bounty from running he will be a sitting ducklett. "Graveler!" Before he can even finish thinking the graveler rolls back into a ball and charges him faster than one would expect a rock to move. Grabbing his bag and moving out of the way with blinding speed the graveler connects to the cavern wall with strong impact, shaking and sending a crack in the stone up the cavern walls causing the roof to crumble and break as rocks now fall and block off the entrance. The grovyle dodges the falling rocks with ease, but the sableye barely manages to move out of the way as his binding makes it all the more difficult.

"Well at least that solves one of my problems." Grovyle quickly rushes the briefly dazed graveler as he moves just in range to tag him with a vine producing from the palm of his hand as it attaches to the rock pokemon. Immediately after the graveler collects it's focus the vine glows red as grovyle feels its energy being drained from his opponent only to give himself more. He swiftly dashes backwards soon after to dodge the gravelers stone fist coming down on top of him. "Thank Arceus for type advantages."

"Graveler!" Another rolling charge easily dodged by the grovyle, as it now heads for the sableye who now notices the chains on his cuffs have been trapped under a large rock immobilizing him from moving. Just as the sableyes life is about to flash before his eyes the attack is knocked off course as grovyle slams his weight into the graveler from the side sending it into another wall. The sableye looks at his captor confused he was the one who saved his life.

"What? Just because I want you behind bars doesn't mean I don't have an obligation to protect others. Even if those others are thieves like you." Grovyle not realizing he got distracted in a fight turns to see the graveler already barreling towards him with little to no time for a reaction. Before the graveler impacts however both are blinded by a bright flash of white light engulfing their eyes for what seemed like forever, but was really only a few seconds. "What is this?!"

Grovyle quickly looks around as he slowly regains his vision noticing the graveler laying in a pile of rocks unconscious. Confused he looked towards the sableye who looks more tired than before. _Was that the thief?_ Questions began racing through his mind as he blankly stares at his bounty, only snapping out of it as he realizes he is trying to struggle his cuffs free from under the rock. "Oh right, here let me give you a hand." Grovyle takes a few seconds to find a good grip on the rock as he prepares himself to lift it. "I lift you pull, one, two, three." Grovyle lifts with all of his remaining strength as the sableye pulls with him, eventually freeing him from under the rock. "There we go, but now we have another problem." His gaze turns to the now blocked off wall. "Digging out will take forever, not to mention it could cause more harm than good now that the roof is unstable."

The sableye taps the grovyle on the leg with his clawed foot to grab his attention, then points at the now discovered entrance to a dungeon. "You must be joking, I'm too exhausted to keep an eye on you and deal with wild pokemon." Sableye looks back at the blocked entrance, "Then again what choice do I have at this point." With a heavy sigh grovyle reaches into his back pulling out a blue berry the size of an orange and immediately shoves it in the sableyes mouth much to his surprise. "Here, I don't want you slowing me down while we are going through the dungeon." The sableye turns around to present his cuffs as the grovyle starts eating a bery of the same kind, "Oh no, I'm not falling for any of your little tricks."

(Hidden Caverns: Floor 1)

After entering the dark area within the beginning of the cavern they are met with a clearing in the earth they walk in, mainly empty aside from the 2 pathways on opposite ends of the clearing. Grovyle held to the chains that kept the sableyes hands cuffed behind his back as grovyle picked a direction and started walking with the reluctant sableye in tow. This dungeon was dark, so dark you could not see more than five feet in front of you, that is if you couldn't see in the darkness like sableye. As sableye watched grovyle wonder around the one area before finally finding a pathway he wondered just how lost they were going to end up here.

"So far we haven't run into any wild pokemon, good progress i'd say." Grovyle was constantly scanning the little surroundings he could see waiting for that moment something jumped at them. "You know I haven't heard a single word or really any noise from you in the last few hours, in fact the entire chase as well. You must be really committed to this silence thing."

The sableye didn't respond as expected, at least not in the way that grovyle was expecting. Grovyle looked at his captive as he stopped them in the middle of a clearing confused. As he looked down he could see sableye opening his mouth like he was going to talk and then nothing. Grovyle pondered what he was looking at for a minute, at first he thought perhaps he was choking on something, but then, "Wait a minute, you can't talk can you?" The sableye responded with a nod, "That's why you weren't talking to me or warning me about the dungeon ahead of time. Well this just got more interesting, that aside we need to keep moving." They continue along so far no encounters which made sableye confused, he knows there are usually wild pokemon in cave systems like this, especially when that system is a dungeon. Looking around to see if he could even spot any better then grovyle could he had a thought comes to mind, there is one pokemon that live in dungeons like this that aren't usually on the ground, in fact they are… Up!

"Skreee!" Just as sableye had the realization to look up a small blue eyeless bat with purple wings flying near the roof of the clearing had swooped down and back up at grovyle hitting him with a wing, receiving a grunt of pain from his captor in response.

"Zubat, just when things were going smoothly, curse Arceus for type advantage." Grovyle looked up but was severely disadvantaged by the darkness no matter where he looked. Sableye however could see clearly that the zubat was coming in for another attack and instinctively pulled at his cuffs, yanking grovyle out of the way. "Hey your not getting- wait, did you help me?" Sableye didn't have time to respond as he was tracking the zubats movements waiting for the next strike. "Oh I see what your doing!"

"Skree! Skree!" The zubat was swinging down for another wing attack but grovyle watched sableyes head tracking its movements and readied himself. As the zubat came within grovyle's five feet of sight it was met with a pound from his fist sending the zubat flying, but it was still looking for more. "Skree!"

"It doesn't sound like it's backing down." Once more following sableyes tracking he was able to counter zubats attack. In the brief moment sableye had he tried pulling on his cuffs as if asking to be let go. "I appreciate the help but I don't think we are there quite yet." Once more counter attacking the zubat they heard a faint thud on the cavern floor, grovyle looking at sableye expression to confirm it had fainted.

"Alright new plan, you're gonna be my eyes in this place since you can see what I cannot." Grovyle still holding onto the chain took a step back making sableye the lead of the two. Grovyle began to wonder many things as he was being led by his bounty into another hallway. _Why has he been helping me ever since iv'e caught him? Is it to save his own skin, or perhaps there is more than just a thief in front of me? That light, I've never seen anything like it from a sableye before, maybe I should try to learn more before I take him back._

Grovyle came out of his thoughts as they eventually stopped at what looked like a stone archway standing in the middle of a clearing they had just entered. Inside the archway of stone looks to be a glowing purple energy suspended to only the stone surrounding it. "After you." Grovyle instructed as he awaited sableye to walk forward. With hesitation sableye walked forward into the energy with grovyle not to far behind.

(Hidden Caverns: Floor 2)

Once again finding themselves in a clearing similar to the one they had just entered sableye looked around confused at what had just happened. Grovyle noticing this looks confused at the sableyes confusion. "Have you never been inside of a dungeon before?" Sableye responded with a shake of his head, "However you knew what the entrance of a hidden dungeon looked like, how odd. But seeing as we are stuck here together I suppose I should explain dungeons while we walk." Sableye took a breath as he began leading them and paying close attention to his surroundings while he listened. "Dungeons have multiple floors, some more than others, some less, that archway we entered is how to get to the next floor and you can never go backwards. Each dungeon is different, so far no one has found any dungeon the same in recorded history, because dungeons are in constant change." Sableye led them down a hallway growing more and more curious the more explanation he heard. "No one can seem to explain these unnatural occurrences, even the places they form are entirely random. Some speculate however that Palkia the legendary pokemon who controls space had some connection to their creation." Sableye made a sudden halt as a noise was heard, and immediately jumped out of the way of something.

"Geodude!" A round rock made creature with two arms and no legs had seemed to lunge itself at sableye.

"Ah a geodude, a much better fight for me." Using their previous teamwork against the zubat a vine produced from grovyle's hand much like before as it glowed red sapping the geodudes energy. The geodude went down in a single attack much to grovyle's disliking, "that's odd wild pokemon are irrational in attacking but usually they can recognize a stronger enemy, unless." Almost on cue another geodude cam flying at him this time connecting the tackle.

"Geodude, geodude." Grovyle took two more flying tackles from all around as two more geodude came out of the darkness. Sableye seemed to be having a harder time helping grovyle keep track when there were multiple enemies to track. "Geodude." Another hit, grovyle was having a harder time counter attacking only landing one hit every two hits he was dealt.

"One at a time sableye! We need to take one out before the other!" Sableye who previously looked concerned gained more confidence with a nod for understanding. Tracking only one at a time made things much easier for grovyle to counter with his absorb attack. Still taking damage bit with the extra effectivess from the type differences grovyle managed to sustain himself from draining the energy and take then out in one blow. Tired huffing from grovyle could be heard when the fight was over as he only briefly glanced at sableyes chains but shook his head and kept his grip firm on them. "We have covered a lot of ground the next floor should be close by. Lets go."

(Hidden Caverns: Floor 3)

Sableye began to notice he was getting tired and feeling faint despite not even battling, looking behind him at the grovyle he looked almost worse. They continued as he began to feel dizzy and started swaying, catching the grovyle's attention. "That's right I forgot about another odd effect of a dungeon. For some reason when you find yourself in a dungeon you get hungry much faster, almost as if your body digests any food you eat at ridiculous speed. That's the part where people think Dialga the legendary pokemon who controls time had a hand in these dungeons as well." Grovyle begins digging through his bag to pull out two apples, he proceeds to start eating one as he hands the other near sableyes face. Sableye however turns his head away. "What's the matter? It's fresh I promise." After thinking grovyle realizes his mistake and begins putting the apple away. "Ah, that's right, sableyes diet consist of minerals doesn't it? Well I don't really have rocks on me or anything like that, hmm." Grovyle grabs the chains as he starts wandering around the clearing swearing he saw something earlier that might help now. "Here they are, I thought I saw some Geo Pebbles near the hallway."

Grovyle leans over to pick up what looks to be five small pebbles in his arms motioning sableye to walk over to him. "These are geo pebbles, usually they are carried around to attack enemies that are too far for a move to hit, usually I never bother collecting them but I guess today is full of odd things happening." Sableye walked over opening his mouth as grovyle dumped all five pebbles into his mouth. Loud crunching could be heard as sableyes razor sharp teeth chewed them up like they weren't even made of rock. "I didn't realise how hungry you must have been seeing as im the only one who ate before we entered the dungeon." Sableye finishing the pebbles and looking much happier then he previously was turned around and continued leading them.

Encountering a few more geodudes and zubat along the way sableye started to wonder how long grovyle could keep this up by himself. They even found a few more geo pebbles for the sableye to snack on later, they thought they must be getting close until sableye stopped to look at the odd seed on the ground, tilting his head in confusion.

"Oh you found a seed." Picking it up grovyle starts examining it. "You must be confused finding a seed in a cave system like this. Allow me to explain." They continue walking as grovyle explains more about the odd workings and aberrations of dungeons. "Many items can be found in dungeons, once again no one knows how they get their but it's almost like they appear in them out of thin air. This seed happens to be something called a blast seed, a seed when thrown can cause a small explosion, alternatively you can eat the seed and you will breath the small explosion." The sableye stops and turns to grovyle even more confused who only chuckled. "You have the same expression I did when I first heard the exploding seed thing. Most of the items found in dungeons are normal, such as oran berries and apples, however a lot of seeds and other items gain weird and different properties most likely from the odd effects of the dungeons they are found in. Why only certain items get affected I couldn't tell you." _How strange, this is usually basic stuff a lot of pokemon learn, and he looks to old not to have heard these kind of things. If only I knew how to communicate with him better, then I could be asking more questions._

(Hidden Caverns: Floor 4)

Grovyle was starting to visibly sweat from all the battles he had to fight alone. Even his absorbing move couldn't restore his energy fast enough. As they were getting deeper into the cave system wild pokemon started showing up more frequently and the floors were only getting bigger, this made them start burning through more food as they had more ground to cover. Sableye eventually stopped and once again tries to get grovyle to release his hands.

"I already told you, you're a thief, and i'm your captor. You're also the only one that can see, why should I risk you potentially ditching me in this dungeon?" Sableye looked around wondering what to do, until he thought of something. Sableye to the best of his capabilities put his hands as far up as they could go and started moving his body side to side. Grovyle looking confused could only make guesses at this point. "Uh, waddling? No struggling! Hmm, do you need to pee?" Sableye looked as though if he could facepalm right now he would, eventually curling into a ball on the floor and trying the same thing again. "Oh oh geodude! Geodude?" Sableye nodded in excitement that they somewhat communicated to each other in that moment. "I think I see what your saying. You want me to trust you because you've been helping me fight the whole time?" Sableye nodded with even more excitement gimmering in his gemstone eyes and toothed smile. Grovyle put a hand to his chin in thought. _Hmm if he hadn't been helping me I would be totally overwhelmed by the wild pokemon giving him the perfect chance to escape. But why, Isn't he a thief? A criminal? Why is he helping the one who is going to lock him up? Perhaps I should give him a chance, perhaps this is my in._

"Alright sableye i'll cut you a deal. I'll let you out of your cuffs in trust that you will aid me through however longer this dungeon is." Sableye looked content at that news. "But." And there it was, he figured he should have seen this coming. "I have some questions I want to ask that you will answer in return, I will make them yes or no questions to make things easier in terms of communication. So first question, do we have a deal?"

Sableye hesitated, he thought for what felt like minutes but was only a few seconds. He knew if they were both going to make it out of this dungeon they both needed to be at full capability, after thinking it over he nodded with a yes in response. "Alright then." Sableye turned around waiting for his cuffs to be removed as grovyle pulled out a small iron key, before unlocking the cuffs he hesitated, "Don't make me regret this sableye." With a click of metal sableye felt relief when he had full movement of his arms and hands once more, stretching them and turning to see grovyle put them away in his bag. "Alright let's get moving, I'll ask my questions as we search for the doorways."

(-)

"So next question, you know about dungeons but have never actually learned any knowledge of dungeons?" Sableye answers with a nod. "At a pokemon seemingly your age that seems fairly odd, even those who have never entered one knows what they are like."

"Do you work alone? Or perhaps do you have some thieving pals that I somehow missed?" Sableye answers with a shake of his head. "Not that such a question couldn't easily be lied about, I just like to hear the different answers." Grovyle gives a chuckle.

"Are you helping me to save yourself?" Sableye answers with a shake once more, "Is that so, are you meaning to tell me a thief cares about what happens to someone like me? Someone who captures pokemon like you?" The sableye turns to look him in the eyes for a brief moment and nods his head before continuing to lead. _That was an answer I didn't entirely expect, this thief is so strange._

"That light back when I fought the graveler in the entrance way, that was you wasn't it." Sableye doesn't give a reply, "It wasn't hard to fit the pieces together. After that blinding light the graveler had fallen, he fainted from a final blow despite having so much more energy. You were tired, more tired after the rest we had just taken before that battle started." The Sableye still remained unresponsive. "I already know the truth, but I want to hear- I mean, see you admit it." Sableye stops once more to look him in the eyes, and grovyle stared back. An odd warmth washed over grovyle for but a brief moment, a warmth that wasn't on the outside but, rather on the inside. Soon after the sableye nodded with a yes before pressing on. _This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder._

A low rumbling seemingly out of nowhere startles the two of them as the cave system itself seems to shake. Holding their balance started proving a challenge before just as fast as the rumbling started is stopped, leaving them confused and disoriented. "That tremor came out of nowhere. Perhaps a cave in on this dungeon floor? Maybe something worse, either way let's tread more carefully from here on out." continuing to walk grovyle was preparing to ask his next question before they entered another doorway room, with the stone arch way their as to be expected, however the archway had what looked to be an empty circle carving on the top.

"Finally, this must be the exit door. But I still don't trust the tremors from earlier or this dungeon that was seemingly hidden. We should proceed with caution." The sableye agreed as they proceeded through the archway.

(Hidden Caverns Pit)

As the two of them find themselves in a single empty room littered with random large stones on the floor grovyle is relieved to realise he can see again. As his eyesight re-adjusts to the light the sableye points out the lone dark corridor. "There's the exit, usually some dungeons have a final room at the end where treasure can sometimes a random." Looking around grovyle sees nothing but the stones that litter the floor, "But it doesn't look like we found much luck. Oh well, let's get out of here with haste we haven't slept all night and i'm sure you're just as exhausted as me."

They begin to walk forward as grovyle realises he has been letting his guard down ever since him and the sableye had made that agreement. He began realising how dangerous that could be around him especially with that strange power he exhibited earlier, and he was still a thief in the end. Then grovyle realised he still had some time before they left and he had one last question he needed to ask.

"Before we leave I should let you know that I am going to cuff you again when we exit this dungeon. You are still a thief after all. However because you've done nothing but help me since I caught you." Sableye turned to look at grovyle with interest. "I might be willing to let you walk the rest of the way without those cuffs, if you answer one more question for me that is." The sableye nodded with a curious look to his facial expression. "Why do you-" He is cut off as the tremors kick up once more this time stronger than the last knocking the two off their feet immediately. _Oh no, in my exhaustion I forgot, the other reason they have rooms like this are for the chance of-_

The stone floor beneath them shattered as they are knocked away, struggling to get on their feet as they look up to see what had just attacked them. A brown mole like creature with razor sharp claws and a metal point at the top of its head stood before them. "Excadrill, the tremors are starting to make sense now." They get to their feet as they stare down the excadrill.

"I should have expected one of you to find my little hiding spot. Always getting in our way, such an annoyance." The excadrill spoke as he stared directly at the sableye.

Grovyle noticed where this excadrills gaze sat, as the sableye seemed to look surprised, frightened, and ready to run away. _Do these two know each other? Just who is this sableye? _"Look we don't want any trouble, we just want to pass through and leave whatever territory we may have invaded."

"You can't fool me. I see it, the sableye has it." Pointing at the sableye the excadrill seems to be distressed and angry, acting like he's just been backed into a corner. "Which means you can only be here to do one thing."

"What might that be then?" Grovyle got in a fighting stance. _This is extremely bad, excadrills are not pokemon to take lightly and we are so exhausted from traveling the dungeon without any sleep. _The grovyle whispers to the sableye beside him, "Hey, I know it looks grim but get ready to fight."

"You're here to take me back to that damn prison. But I won't let that happen!" The excadrill slams his foot on the ground causing another tremor to happen as the two find a stance to keep them on their feet.

"No choice sableye we have to fight our way out!" Its at this point the sableye begins to notice a dark shadow like essence emitting off the excadrill. "What the hell?" Before he his time to process he swiftly dodges the incoming attack from excadrills metal claw swiping at him.

"You can't hope to beat me, not in your weakened state."

Grovyle sends out his vine once again producing the red glow connecting with the excadrill. He feels a lingering warmth enter him, but not the usual warmth he gets from his absorb attack. No this warmth feels like the one he felt back when he asked sableye that question, but this time he felt it linger. "What is this feeling, where is it coming from?"

"You, I don't know how you hid it from me but no matter, you are still too weak!" Expecting his speed to fail him from his exhaustion the warmth seemed to do more than give him a strange feeling. In Fact it made him feel a little better than before. He manages to dodge the next coming attack as its claws instead collide with the rock behind him.

"Sableye, is this your doing?" Taking a moment to look at the sableye he notices a bright light just below the sableyes neck almost like bell in the shape of a heart. _Alright things have just gone from weird to what the actual hell. _

The sableye seems to gather his courage as he melts into his own shadow on the floor and swiftly charges the excadrill from behind . The show pops off of the ground as it slams him from behind, after landing back on the floor the sableye reappears.

"Pesky little gremlin!" The sableye has no time to react as he is batted into one of the stones on the ground, slamming into the stone he lands on his hands and knees.

"Hey drill boy, focus on me!" Grovyle comes from the side of his opponent with the leaves on one side of his arm glowing and sharpening into a glowing blade swiping at the excadrill. Caught off guard Grovyle goes for a second swipe as the leaves on his other arm do the same thing.

"You're really getting on my nerves." The excadrill prepares another claw attack but this time it gets surrounded in the shadow essence that he is emanating, catching grovyle by surprise with the strange attack he lands the hit sending him flying into a stone.

"What kind of attack was that?!" Despite his new found and strange power boost he starts to feel the exhaustion kick back in, looking over at the sableye he can safely assume the same is happening to him as well. _Whatever this warmth is it's starting to wear off on the both of us. Even worse this guy doesn't even seem close to being tired. _His thoughts were cut short as the excadrill began chuckling.

"Now I'm starting to understand. Not only are you exhausted, but you have no idea how to call upon it. Neither of you have been trained." The excadrill slowly makes his way over to the grovyle. "Well isn't this just my lucky day." His chuckle grows more sinister as he raises his metal claws to make a final blow to the grovyle, until a blinding light once again over take their sight. "What? Where did this burst of energy come from?!"

Grovyle instinctually closed his eyes before realising, this time it didn't hurt his eyes. In Fact he opened them and seemed just fine, looking over at the sableye as the blinding light seems to be emanating off of him while he stands. Then he turns his attention to the excadrill who seems to be feeling pain from the light, just before he panics and swiftly drills his way into the ground to escape. As the sableye notices this he stops producing the light as he stands there heavily breathing.

"I think he's gone. For now at least." Grovyle as fast as he can gets to his feet and walks over to the sableye. "Quickly we can make our escape before he comes back!" As he walks over however the sableye seems to collapse on the floor. "Oh no." Grovyle rushes over to the sableye picking him up before dashing towards the exit. _I have only a few seconds before the dungeon kicks him back to the start, come on, I can make it!_

With only a second to spare the grovyle makes it through the end of the tunnel by throwing himself with all his remaining strength out of the dungeon. Falling to the grassy floor as the unconscious sableye rolls a few feet away from him. Exhaustion and battle take hold of his body as he lay on the floor no longer able to move a single muscle, he looks over at the sableye saying weakly. "You better be alive over there sableye, you still owe me… one more… question…" Just as the darkness of unconsciousness begins to take him he hears shouting in the distance.

"Look over there! It's them we found them!"


	3. Chapter 2: Unusual Understanding

_That sound, what is that sound? It sounds so distant, yet within my reach, so calming, yet I cannot hear it fully. Chimes, is the sound I'm hearing chimes? I need to open my eyes. White, nothing but white void all around, where am I? Sableye? Is that sableye I see in the distance? I can't shout, I can't speak at all, what in the name of Arceus is going on right now, weren't both of us at the end of the dungeon? No matter how much closer I walk to him he stays the same distance away, this just gets weirder by the second. Wait a new sound? Closer then the chimes but, it sounds interrupted, almost like static, a voice perhaps?_

"Rise and shine!" Opening his eyes grovyle is met with a half pink and half cream colored face staring down at him. He knew this face all too well however, an Audino who happened to be the guilds nurse. Rubbing his head he sat up beginning to stretch.

"Good morning, Angel." He looked at his surroundings recognizing he was in his own room at the guild. The straw bedding, multiple workout areas, and of course his personal items chest. Angel brought over a tray of what he presumed to be herbal tea, something Angel always like to make for her patients. "Say Angel, how did I get here? The last thing I remember was blacking out after exiting the dungeon with… the sableye, where is the sableye?!"

"Hey, hey calm down, honestly Seth if I wasn't a medical professional I would have assumed you were having a heart attack." After snatching his tea before he became full on panicked she placed it back on the tray taking a deep breath. "If you mean the criminal you apprehended, then he is in the holding cells on the lower level until Chief can collect him and the other criminals." Seth seemed to have a sigh of relief, yet unsure if it was a sigh that he didn't get away or if he hadn't been taken yet. After all he still owed him one more question. "As for how you got here. After you did not return for the night and most of the morning, a rescue team was sent out to find you. They found you and the sableye unconscious in the middle of Berry Woods."

"That makes sense then, but wow Angel I feel great after that night."

"I would hope so, you've been sleeping for two days." Seth stopped in his tracks of standing up and slowly turned to Angel.

"I'm sorry I must have misheard you, it almost sounded like you just told me I've been sleeping for two days."

"That's because I did, could you not hear me Seth? Might be symptoms of still waking up from-"

"TWO DAYS!? That's insane! How have I been sleeping for two days!?" Seth was in total shock and slight panic. "I've been put off schedule, people will start to think I'm slacking on my duties, the guildmaster will be very disappointed with me." Seth was now pacing back and forth in his room rambling to himself.

"Well dear you did push yourself to your limits, in fact I'm not sure how but with that much exhaustion it was almost like you went past your limits." Angel began to clean the room of the empty tea cups and multiple items being used to nurse Seth to a full recovery. However those last words ran through Seth's mind. _Past my limits? I know that I'm not that strong yet, not by a long shot. Perhaps it was… _He began to recall the light, the one that felt so energizing as they fought that Excadrill. _That light, that same one the sableye was using, could that have pushed me beyond my current limitations?_

"Well thank you for looking after me in my state of exhaustion. I have some catching up to do on my work, plus im sure everyone would like to know I am well and alive." He gave a slight chuckle to that last statement as he proceeded out of the wooden door entering the guild halls.

Walking down the hall he was greeting in passing by some friendly faces of the other guild members. Coming around the corner through the exit of the guild member rooms he saw a familiar place. The main room of the guild, the first room anyone sees when entering this place, it is almost always filled with many many teams and staff scrambling to get their jobs done for the day. The guild walls were mainly made of stone brick with strips of marble, the floor was a nice smooth wood, each doorway was color coded to specific rooms, in the center of the main room looked to be a statue of a Luxray, every new addition to the guild was to always remember the founder of the guild even if they weren't around during his time as the original guildmaster.

More members began greeting Seth as he made his way towards the set of stairs on the right side of the statue eyeing the door lined with a golden frame. Before he was stopped by a familiar voice.

"Seth! Glad to see you awake and back on your feet!" Seth turned his gaze to the Machoke waving him down with a smile, Behind him stood a Poliwrath and Breloom with equally happy faces to see him.

"Ah Team Combat! Thank you I am doing quite well."

"You seem like you're in a hurry, always the hard worker I see. You should take it easy more, you seemed in bad shape when we found you in Berry Woods." Machoke gave a friendly chuckle along with his teammates.

"So you are the rescue team who found me and the sableye."

"Don't worry we made sure you got full credit for the thief's capture. The money and reward items were deposited to your account." That word, thief. Seth knew that sableye was in fact a thief and he had been calling him that throughout the entire dungeon exploration, but for some reason calling the sableye a thief didn't feel right in his chest. "What's the matter? Something on your mind?"

"Oh uh, you know me always got my next job on the brain, haha." He forced a laugh but he couldn't get his mind off all of these questions, questions he hopes the guildmaster might be able to help with. "Thank you for rescuing me however we should catch up later at lunch, I need to talk to the guild master about something very important."

"No worries we were just about to head off on our next job, good luck with your important thing." With that Team Combat left Seth to walk up the stairs as walked into the open frame. After a few steps he came out the door and knocked. Waiting with no response, he knocked again. Once more no response, he knocks again. Before he could knock again he heard a muffled voice of rambling before the door swung open.

"Can't you tell I'm very busy toda- Oh! Seth I see you are finally up and about excellent!" Seth was met with the very familiar face of the guildmaster an Alolan Marowak, unlike many alolan marowak's coloration the guild master had a mainly purple body with a black belly and black x pattern on his skull head, the guildmaster is what is known as a shiny pokemon.

"Yes I'm very sorry to bother you guildmaster Hoku but I need to talk with you, it's very important."

"Of course, of course, come on in make yourself comfortable." Hoku walked back to his desk to allow Seth room for entrance. As Seth closed the door behind him, he took a few seconds to appreciate the guildmasters office as not many pokemon get to enter his office to frequently. His room walls were painted to look more like wood despite it still being made of stone bricks, he had 2 bookshelves almost completely filled behind his wooden desk, a desk that seemed to have stacks of papers littered on it, his chair was wooden much like the two chairs in front of his desk. A purple carpet with random but stylized symbols covered his entire floor. "Come sit, sit."

"Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to talk to me Master Hoku." Seth sat at one of the chairs and Hoku sat at his desk moving some of the stacks to the floor to better see the guild member.

"It's no trouble at all, besides I would love to hear exactly what happened that night to cause all this fuss." Seth began to explain what happened that night, however as much as it pained him he decided to lie about anything to do with that strange light. If he told the guild master something like that he would just write it off as a hallucination I had from my exhaustion, besides I want as many facts as I can get.

"Then I woke up not to long ago in my room here."

"The way you describe this thief's behavior is very odd. Are you sure it wasn't just the exhaustion making you think things?" As Hoku questions Seth he begins searching his desk drawers for something.

"I'm one hundred percent sure that's what happened. But this sableye didn't seem to be that bad of a pokemon the more we traveled that dungeon together." Hoku finally finding what he was searching for pulled out a file with many papers.

"I just find it very odd considering his track record so far." Opening the file Seth sees many on papers the world 'FAILED' stamped in red. "This particular thief has been able to escape from some of our best teams so far. But because of your impressive skill we finally decided to send you on this mission, it's a good thing we did too."

"I did not know that, but what does this have to do with what kind of pokemon the sableye really is?"

"Well according to the reports of the past teams sent after him. They all seem to roughly say the same thing, cunning, fairly strong, and knew exactly how to slip away from any detection after the theft." He handed Seth some of the papers in the file to look over, while reading some himself. "I'm saying he could have been playing you to save himself in this case."

"You do make a compelling case, except for one thing guildmaster."

"Oh? What might that be?"

"When I uncuffed him to help me. Remember how I said he could see in that dungeon but I couldn't? Why didn't he just run away after that exact moment?" Hoku pondered for a moment as Seth continued. "At first I thought it was so he could find the opportunity to take his loot back including whatever I might have had on me of value."

"Yes that would make sense for a pokemon like him."

"However in my exhaustion my guard was, admittedly let down multiple times. Those times would have been his perfect opportunity to take everything, but I noticed he took no interest in anything I was carrying." Hoku oddly enough began to chuckle slightly shaking his head and folding his arms. "Is something wrong guild master?"

"No, no, I just find it very humorous how in all your time at the guild, refusing to have a team member. Insisting that you work better alone, not to mention the paperwork I had to go through just to make your team of one a reality. That a thief was your very first pick of a partner." Hoku began full on laughing as Seth sat in amazement of his guildmasters oddly timed moment of what he found funny in his story.

"It wasn't like that guildmaster, I told you in the story it was getting rough in there and I needed someone to watch my back."

"You mean like a partner or teammate perhaps?" Hoku shook his head. "Honestly Seth this is why I keep telling you to get some team members." Pulling out another file labeled trainees he puts it on the desk and opens it for Seth to see picking out specific papers. "These are some of the best trainees we have at the guild right now. A Mawile who has shown to be strong in the field of combat, perhaps a Charmander who could grow to be a strong Charizard, a nice dynamic for a Grovyle like yourself. Oh Perhaps this Litwick who shows to be a very good tactician, a team always needs someone who's good at planning."

"I've told you already guildmaster, I don't need a team member I'm doing just fine on my own." As much as he hated to admit it, he knew he was lying to the guildmaster again. Back in that dungeon he needed the help, help that the sableye seemed to be willing to give. _I can't seriously be thinking… No that will never happen, even if I wanted to… but what if… _"Guildmaster Hoku can I ask you a favor?"

"Well that depends on the favor I suppose."

"I would like to request access to the holding cells bellow."

"That is a very odd request. Let me guess, this has to do with you asking your bounties why they do it, am I right?"

"Well, partially I suppose, but I wouldn't be asking this favor if it wasn't important, sir."

"No I suppose you wouldn't." Hoku looks Seth in the eyes for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. "Alright then, I have to admire your ability to see the good in everyone, even if it's from someone like this." Hoku hands him a silver coin with the depiction of a cell door embedded on it. "Hand that to Buzz he has cell duty today, that coin is a one day use it will let you enter the cells as many times as you wish for the entire day."

"Thank you guildmaster, I will put my time to good use." As Seth is about to exit the door he turns back to his guildmaster for one more question. "One more question before I leave guildmaster."

"Yes?"

"Have you heard anything related to, uh, a pokemon having white light?" He gulped at his last words unsure of why he's so afraid to even talk about this subject with the one pokemon he trusts most.

"A pokemon having white light you say? Hm, can't say I know of anything off the top of my head, but perhaps the guild library has something on that subject. I recommend looking there for such an odd subject." Hoku looked at Seth quite confused but realising how much work he still needed to get done, he decided to not press Seth on the matter, at least for now.

"Good idea, thank you again guildmaster." Seth proceeds to leave the guildmasters office and make his way down to the cells past all the other pokemon lost in his thoughts. _Why am I so afraid to tell him, worse case scenario he thinks I'm going crazy and moves on. It's almost like I don't want anyone to know what this sableye is capable of, at least not yet. But why? I need more answers before this whole white light thing actually does drive me crazy. _

Walking down the steps and through the main room of busy teams Seth enters a hallway marked with a black lined frame. The hallway eventually became stairs as he now walked down into the darker parts of the guild. The parts upstairs were normally lit by lanterns crafted in a way to make the flame that burned inside brighter and spread out more, however down here the only sources of light were regular torches that decorate the gray stone brick walls making it much dimmer than the rest of the guild. Eventually coming to the end of the stairs to another short hallway that ended in a well crafted wooden door lined with more black markings, leaning on the wall next to the door happened to be a puzzled looking Electabuzz as Seth approached him.

"Hey there Seth glad to see you doing just fine, what brings you down to these parts?" The Electabuzz shifted slightly now showing the pair of keys on their ring hanging on a metal hook in the wall.

"Hello there Buzz, I am here to speak with one of the inmates." He holds up the coin given to him by Hoku.

"Uh sure no problem." Buzz takes the coin and and keys unlocking the door, but before he opens it he turns to Seth. "Might I ask why exactly? No one but the higher-ups usually comes down here, let alone to talk with inmates."

"I... Cannot say unfortunately. But it is of importance to me that I talk with this inmate."

"Well, if you say so I guess." Buzz finally opens the door revealing a large hallway with multiple similar wooden doors lining the walls. Each door is labeled by numbers starting with one-hundred and ending with with six-hundred. "So which inmate are you looking for exactly?." Buzz grabs a clipboard with multiple papers that was hanging by a similar hook on the other side of the wall.

"It was a Sableye, one that should have been brought in the same time I was found unconscious in the woods." Seth began to wonder of the Sableye also received similar treatment and if he had also been resting the same length of time has himself.

"Ah, here we go, a Sableye matching that description seems to have been placed in cell two-o-four." They walk to the door labeled two-hundred as Buzz unlocks it. Seth walks in and halts Buzz as he starts to follow.

"I would prefer if the Sableye and I had this conversation privately." Buzz give him a questionable look of disapproving. "Please Buzz, this is important." Pondering for a few moments Buzz lets out a sigh.

"Alright Seth, but only because I trust you. If anything happens you holler, I'll be right outside the door." Seth nods a thank you and Buzz leaves the hall and closes the door. The hallway had cells doors embedded into the stone walls as the cages were made of the same stone as the walls seeing as they were merely large carved squares into the walls. Each call was labeled much like a hotel room from two-o-one down to two-o-ten and seemed to be mostly empty. Walking up to two-o-four he looked inside the cell to see the very Sableye sitting curled into balls facing away from the cell door.

"Hello again Sableye." At the sound of Seth's voice the Sableyes ears perked up and he turned his attention to Seth standing at the door. "I would like to have a chat with you if you do not mind." The Sableye stands up and walks over to the bars and stands a mere few inches away. "I see made a nice recovery much like myself, I hope Angel treated you well down here." They stared at each other in a tense moment. _That's right, how could I forget he mentioned he can't talk before. This might be a little more difficult than I thought but I have to try._

"You still owe me one more question Sableye." The Sableye tilts his head in curiosity waiting for this question. "Why do you steal?" Sableye seemed a little stunned that out of everything, that's the question he asked. Sableye and Seth stared at each other unsure of how they were supposed to communicate this answer. Just before Seth was about to leave and get some paper he felt that warm feeling wash over him again as they both look at each other surprised. "So that's why… Waits did you, did I, did we just!?" Sableye looked equally as confused like he had just experienced the same thing. "I could hear you in my head just then, why could I understand you in my head!? What do you mean you don't know!? It's happening again!" the two of them started to panic unsure of what was even happening.

"That warmth, I felt it before, back in the cave. That same warmth that I suspect comes with that white light you have." Seth is now grabbing onto the bars and staring at Sableye as he tries to recollect himself. "I don't understand what is happening and neither do you, but for now I'm just kind of glad we can communicate. That White light what is it? You don't even know, that is surprising." Seth takes a deep breath as Sableye now recollects himself by doing the same, and he relaxes his grip on the cell bars. "I've been calling you thief this entire time but after that night in the cave I does not sit right with me to continue using that as a nickname. Tell me, do you have a name?... Well then Leroy, it seems to me as strange as it is, perhaps we have some weird connection. One that I believe has to do with that white light."

"Is uh everything alright in there?" Buzz was now peeking his head in the door don the hallway. "I heard you shouting in panic, what's goin on?"

"Uh, it's nothing Buzz i was just… Surprised by an answer to a question that is all. You can return to your post." Buzz gives a puzzled look then shrugs it off closing the door again. "Alright i'm not sure where to go from here but I have a few ideas." He stares at Leroy intently. "So you say you steal because you have no place to call your own, no memory of your own aside from your name and strangely a few familiar places." Leroy nods in conformation. _How is this even possible? Connected is such a way I can just tell what he wants to say to me. Can he hear my thoughts right now? What's weirder is that he has no idea about the white light that he somehow knew to use, perhaps it's part of his amnesia and it came with instinct. Does this connection mean i also have this weird Light? All I know is one thing is for certain that I must do, and that's the one thing I thought I'd never do._

"Leroy, I think there is more to this story and it has caught my attention. Im sure it has also caught yours and I think we both want some answers, and there is only one way that is going to happen." Seth takes a deep breath. "So I have a proposition for you."

(-)

"No no no, can't do it, not happening, sorry!" Seth was in a room with nothing but a Desk and behind it a large amount of boxes and papers and cabinets. Behind that Desk also happened to be a seemingly very busy Froslass filing papers.

"Come on Grace you know I wouldn't request something so crazy if I wasn't serious."

"That's the issue darling I _know _you are serious. I knew the moment you asked me but still the answer is no."

"Look I understand what i'm asking is against guild rules but this is to important not to make an exception, please Grace!" Seth looked at Grace with a pleading expression.

"Why do you even want to have a thief as you're teammate? That sounds like a terrible decision to me in the first place. Besides what happened to being a lone lycanroc?" Grace was still moving around frantically trying to get all her paperwork done for the day and she seemed to have a lot of it.

"Things have changed, besides there is more to him then I think either of us even realise, that's all I can say right now but you have to trust me Grace im begging you." Grace stops for a moment to look Seth straight in his eyes ad gives a sigh."

"Would you trust this thief with your life, Seth?"

"I already have." A moment of tense pause goes by between them.

"Alright alright I'll talk with guildmaster Hoku and see what I can do if it will get you to leave me alone im busy." Seth has a sigh of relief as hear those words. "But don't go getting your hopes up, you know as well as I do that this is a very unlikely chance of happening!"

"Trust me Grace I am very much aware of what I'm doing Thank you." Seth turns around to leave the team management room passing by another team as they enter that room.

(-)

The library, a place filled with knowledge gathered over the years of this guild standing. It was built on the second floor with a large glass dome adorning the roof of the room. The library was fairly large and organized almost obsessively, other members of the guild seemed to also frequent the library whether is be to relax in between jobs or to study a place or an opponent for their next mission. Seth luckily knew his way around the library as he came here to study almost every day, unfortunately however the topic for which he is searching for was tricky.

_Where do I even start looking for something like this?_ _What I'm looking for sounds like something written in fantasy, but if I am going on the idea that it is real should I look for historical events? Hmm, perhaps I should just ask the librarian they might help thin my search for this needle._

Walking to the front desk he waits for a few moments until a cart with many yet to be put away books piled on top of it rolls behind it. "Hey Clover, if it's no bother I could use some help regarding my current research today." A yellow, white, and black furred pokemon with more orange fur protruding from its ears slightly taller than Seth walks out from behind the books and to the front desk with a joyful smile.

"Hello Seth~" The Braixen's tone was as cheery as usual when greeting Seth. However oddly enough Seth never talked to Clover much despite coming here a majority of his time, he usually knew where to find something he was looking for. "I must say you needing my help is quite rare." She pulls out a fairly large book from behind the counter and pulls the stick from their tail. "Now what do you need found?"

"Everything in that book you can find about white light." Clover curious does not ask and with a wave of the stick the book flips on its own to a specific page.

"Well he have stun seeds and orbs that emit a white light, luminous orbs, sunny day orbs, rave orbs when they are shattered those noisy bothersome things, evolving makes this effect-" Before she can go on Seth stopped her.

"Perhaps something more specific, what about mysterious white light, or pokemon emitting a white light that is not evolution maybe?"

"That's a very odd specification, might I ask as to why?" Flipping the pages once more as she waits for an answer

"It's… Just a rumor I've been hearing every now and then on my jobs and, lets just say it's caught my interest." An even more curious look given by Clover the pages stop turning. Without saying anything she skims the pages she ended up on.

"Well there seems to be only one book that I can seem to find with those specifications. It seems to be a book titled 'Unexplained discoveries' with an unknown author." _Unexplained discoveries? That sounds promising._

"Where would that be located?" Clover points to one of the aisles.

"Aisle three on shelf two of the history section. I hope you find what you are looking for in there." Seth bows a thank you and heads off into the aisle scanning the second shelf until eventually stumbling onto it. Pulling it out it seemed to be a simple gray book with the title 'Unexplained discoveries' seemingly written in a golden color, scanning the book all over there was no other words or mention of the author like Clover mentioned. _You better have something at least otherwise I'm already at a dead end._

Opening the book he saw what looked almost like someone into a lot of conspiracies would wright and he began to get frustrated at that. Before almost giving up on this book he turned to a page that caught his eye. It seemed to be a chapter titled 'Mysterious Light', jackpot. He skims through the just the first page and he gives an odd look, as the pages seemed to be jumbled and at times hard to comprehend. _Leroy needs to see this, perhaps he can help me make out of some of this if we work together on decoding whatever im reading here._

Taking it up to the front desk he checks out the strange book and leaves the library, now standing just outside the double wooden doors he begins to think about what he should do next. _Should I make use of this day pass and show Leroy the book now or wait until he's out and make other uses of my time for the day. Perhaps I can talk to guild master about my request for him to join the team, help it go by smoother. Maybe I should take a job while I wait for news on that build up my earnings to double up on my supplies. Gah! I'm burning precious daylight here think Seth think!_


End file.
